Features

Big Little Lies author Liane Moriarty will talk about her new novel, Nine Perfect Strangers on November 9 during WriterFest Nashville. Songwriter Tom Douglas and TV producer Liz Cackowski are also keynote speakers at the event, which brings together writers across genres.

In this excerpt from Jesus Crawdad Death, a new limited-edition chapbook from Third Man Books, Chapter 16’s Betsy Phillips considers the power of an unfinished ghost story by the late Hohenwald novelist William Gay. Phillips will appear at Third Man Records in Nashville on October 28 at 4 p.m.

In honor of the centennial year of the Women’s National Book Association, Chapter 16 is publishing an excerpt from Women in the Literary Landscape, which includes a history of the organization’s Nashville chapter by Carolyn T. Wilson. The WNBA will host its annual Coffee with Authors on October 13 as part of the Southern Festival of Books.

In 2001, when Shelby Foote was one of the writers who wrote to a Georgia judge on my behalf, I was surprised. Having Shelby Foote take my side against the Margaret Mitchell estate was a little like having Ashley take sides against Scarlett with an unacknowledged but not unborn daughter of Mammy’s. Of all the writers who stood with me—Toni Morrison, Pat Conroy, Harper Lee, Ishmael Reed, John Egerton, Tony Earley, Michael Kreyling, Larry McMurtry, and Arthur Schlesinger among them—no one had more to lose than Shelby Foote.

The inaugural Memphis Literary Arts Festival will begin June 15 with a ticketed benefit, “Dinner at the Hibiscus Salon,” and continues from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on June 16 with a series of talks, readings, and performances by writers, musicians, and artists from across the country. An after-party with DJ Siphne Aaye will begin at 7:30 p.m. June 16.

Thirteen, Jerry Joyner’s 1975 collaboration with artist Remy Charlip, returns to shelves this month in a new edition for a new generation of young readers. Joyner will visit Parnassus Books on May 23 to discuss the book, as well as his remarkable career.